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Ray Winstone to join cast of The Wombles reboot

Ray Winstone is perhaps best known for his “hard man” gangster roles in films such as Scum, Nil by Mouth and Sexy Beast.

However, Ray has decided to switch things up a bit… by joining the cast of The Wombles.

Speaking at the Children’s Media Conference Mike Batt, who owns the rights to The Wombles, said that Bernard Cribbins will be voicing Great Uncle Bulgaria and Ray Winstone will lend his voice to Tobermory.

People keep asking if it’s going to have that lovely parochial, cuddly quality that the Wombles are famous for.We have to bring it into the modern century, but do we have to speed it up, do we have to cut every second? Yes, we have to make it palatable to the modern audience, but we can do it other ways.

We hope that making it “palatable to the modern audience” doesn’t mean Tobermory will be getting involved in drug deals and violent gangs…

Batt also commented that, in-keeping with the modern feel of the reboot, The Wombles would feel more like a Pixar creation:

We’re spending a lot more money per episode. It’s costing us over twice the expected budget to make these episodes, because we want to give them a really high-quality look. I wouldn’t claim to be a Pixar, but that’s where we’re going with it.

The Wombles will air on Channel 5 but a start date is yet to be confirmed.